Summary: A younger and more reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out on an "unexpected journey" to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of Dwarves to reclaim their stolen mountain home from a dragon named Smaug.

The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first installment in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy—the much awaited prequel series to the ubiquitously acclaimed The Lord of the Rings Trilogy—based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. A number of actors have reprised their roles from
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Ian Mckellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum,
Hugo Weaving as Elrond, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Christopher Lee as
Saruman, to name a few. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey presents the first part
of the quest undertaken by an artless hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and a band of vagrant
dwarves to help the latter reclaim their lost kingdom from the clutches of a
fiendish dragon named Smaug. It is the grand old wizard Gandalf the Grey who tricks
Bilbo into joining the seemingly hopeless quest. Gandalf, having closely observed
the hobbits for centuries, is fully aware of the inexorable resolve that the halflings
are capable of showing once they are pushed beyond their usual limits. Behind
their home-loving, amiable, and dainty façade the hobbits are gritty, adventurous,
and enduring creatures fully capable of surprising the fiercest of adversaries. During
the course of the journey Bilbo and company must always remain wary of the dangers lurking in the shadowy avenues of the Middle-earth. And the sooner they learn to trust each other’s instincts the better would
be the odds of their survival.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins

It
is one thing to make a promise but it is something totally different to be able
to fulfill it. While the former at best is a cinch the latter requires
commitment of the highest order. And who better than Peter Jackson to
demonstrate it! Over the last many decades several filmmakers had dabbled with
the idea of adapting Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings into a full-fledged
motion-picture, but it was only Jackson who had the vision, ability and self-belief
to make it a reality. And the rest is history. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy quite
easily features amongst the greatest accomplishments of cinema. Ever since the
grand success of the trilogy speculations concerning the film adaptation of The
Hobbit had been rife. Jackson had initially planned to make a two-film
adaptation of the novel which was to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. The
constant delays caused by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s financial turmoil eventually
forced del Toro to leave the project. Guillermo del Toro’s ouster resulted in
Peter Jackson’s ascension to the helm. Just like with its predecessor, Jackson
once again decided to shoot The Hobbit Trilogy back to back in his native New
Zealand. The trilogy’s second and the third installments viz. “The Hobbit: The
Desolation of Smaug” and “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” are scheduled to
release in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey

In
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson yet again succeeds in living
up to his promise. Jackson shows why he is hailed in the
film circles as an auteur par excellence. When it comes to the fantasy genre
Jackson truly has no equal. An Unexpected Journey serves to be a visual
spectacle of a very unique kind, one that appeals both to the soul and the
intellect. While one is dazzled by the movie’s visual sumptuousness, it’s quite
difficult to overlook the emotional subtext—most evident in Bilbo's homesickness and the plight
of the dwarves who have been driven out of their rightful dwellings by a
ferocious usurper. It’s indeed awe-inspiring to see the way Jackson manages to strike the right kind of balance between style and substance.

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

It’s important to note
that Tolkien’s The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is essentially a children’s
book and the motifs that it deals with are quite frivolous in comparison to its
sequel, The Lord of the Rings, which without doubt is a much profound work of
literature. In order to make the plot more engaging for the mature audience, Jackson
and his team of writers were forced to make several adjustments to the
adapted plot. They introduced several additional plot details, mostly
extracted from Tolkien’s unpublished notes. It left them with enough content to
make a three-part adaptation instead of a two-part one as was previously
planned. Jackson explains, “A lot of the embellishment, almost all comes from
Tolkien because he wrote a lot of notes for an expanded version that he was
going to revise after The Lord of the Rings. There were elements looking back
at The Hobbit that he wished he'd included.”

The character Gollum, performed by Andy Serkis, in The Hobbit

Overall,
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an exhilarating cinematic experience for
viewers of all ages and groups. Vintage Jackson, the movie serves to be a fine
specimen of masterful storytelling. Unlike most modern-day movies of its kind, An
Unexpected Journey never lets story take the backseat and while technology
plays a pivotal part the real emphasis is always on the movie’s plot. Most of the sequences
in the movie are beautifully crafted. The one in which Bilbo encounters the
ever so spiteful Gollum remains this critic's absolute favorite. Andrew Lesnie’s awe-inspiring cinematography
is another strong point of the movie. The same can be said of Howard Shore’s
titillating background music. While the movie’s use of CGI and VFX is quite exemplary in itself the 3D and HFR effects serve to be a real icing on the cake that makes the
movie quite unique even in comparison to its predecessors. Jackson manages to
elicit worthy performances from his entire cast of actors. Here, I would like to make a special mention of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Ian Mckellen as Gandalf the Grey.
An Unexpected Journey has set the ball rolling for the final two installments
of the trilogy, but what still remains to be seen is whether it would be possible
for Jackson and team to match the success of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, both from the financial as well as critical point of view?

I found the movie quite entertaining although this is not exactly my genre. I wish there could be more real conversations, and more characters I could remember distinctly from the movie. I liked it all the same.

I know that I am going to like this movie even though I am yet to see it. My concern is: should I watch it in HFR or as any other normal film; but The Hobbit can't be any other normal film now, can it?

finally, that's exactly my own thoughts of the movie. After many negative reviews there is one that describes this movie for what it is, i certainly loves the scene with gollum and i'm waiting to see the rest of the trilogy

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Murtaza Ali Khan is an independent film critic / journalist based out of New Delhi, India. He has been writing on cinema for over seven years. He runs the award-winning entertainment blog A Potpourri of Vestiges. He is also the Films Editor at the New York City-based publication Cafe Dissensus and regularly contributes to The Hindu and The Sunday Guardian. He was previously a columnist at Huff Post. He has also contributed to publications like DailyO, Newslaundry, The Quint, Dear Cinema, Desimartini and Jamuura Blog. He regularly appears as a guest panelist on the various television channels and is also associated with radio.